Slippery Slope

Having been working for the police department now for about 6 months, I have discovered a slightly disheartening new characteristic about myself. My vocabulary has taken a decidedly sideways turn and I wouldn’t say expanded, but perhaps a better word for it would be downgraded so that words I wouldn’t have ever said before come more readily to my mind and sometimes to my actual speech. It didn’t take long, and we don’t even have that many cops who are superfluous with swearwords in their language, so I can only imagine how bad it would be if I worked somewhere less wholesome than SVPD. It was just something funny to me, but the more I think about it, the more an old and rather simple idea gets reinforced, it is easier to be pulled down than to pull others up. Not the most astounding and revolutionary idea I know, but one that then took me down a trail of thoughts leading me to my faith. It is a struggle to do what is right. It isn’t easy, for me to sit back and rest on the fact that I am a Christian and therefore I automatically know and therefore do the right thing means that I will find myself in some serious trouble. This actually takes work! I struggle with this often I think because I was raised in the church and can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe, so I feel like my faith is so deeply engrained in me, that it is no longer something distinctive, but just part of the background noise of my life. Which makes me wonder, what will happen when something – anything really – comes along that is louder than the “white noise” I have let my faith become? Chances are good I will follow that siren song because it is just so much easier to be pulled down, especially if I have failed to do the work.


Thing is, we don’t like to think of our faith, our recovery, or our relationship with God as work. We want it to be easy, smooth, and effortless. Isn’t that what we are taught faith should be anyway? the word “just” is put in front of everything “just” believe “just” pray “just” do the right thing. Those can all be very difficult to do sometimes.


Amazingly, I actually looked at some Scripture that I thought speaks to the issue. Ephesians 6, The NASB says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” 13Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and have put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace 16in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17And take the helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God


I like the God’s Word translation for the first verse a little better just to illustrate the point a little better: “This is not a wrestling match against a human opponent. We are wrestling with rulers, authorities, the powers who govern this world of darkness, and spiritual forces that control evil in the heavenly world”


Nothing about those verses indicates a laxity, ease, or gentle action. They are strong verses that indicate the need for work, for effort, for preparing for battle! Not exactly the picture of a background faith that I know I have let happen. This is a picture of something active, something that requires, nay (yes I said nay), actually demands the complete absorption of our entire being. You can’t go into battle with only partial investment, you would lose almost instantly. So why would our spiritual lives, which are apparently in a battle with the darkness of this world, be looked at any differently? It is so easy to get caught up in this world and get dragged down by things that appear to be harmless, and things that eat away at our morality and integrity. My example of my change in language is just a minor one compared to some of the darker compromises that we become so much more willing to make when we have relegated our faith to a backdrop rather than at the forefront of our lives. The sad thing is that we usually wait to hit bottom before we decide it’s time to rethink our priorities. I don’t want to have to hit that in my own life before I recognize the need for change, but I also know that relying on myself to motivate myself is insanity, and sometimes I don’t want to make that change, so I can’t trust myself with that decision. It won’t work, so I have to ask and trust that God will help me make not only that choice, but give me the strength and energy to kick into high gear.